For Provost Susan R. Wente, the meaning of mental health and wellness from the university’s standpoint means encouraging a culture of openness and honest discussion about mental health and wellbeing.
“Mental health and wellbeing to us means really having a healthier community that’s very transparent and willing to share with one another what our challenges are and how to help one another, and that mental health and wellbeing does not at all infer that we think everyone has to be, and will be, happy all the time,” Wente said. “We view that there are some very significant and severe mental illnesses that we know faculty, students and our staff suffer from, and then [think about] how do we provide the most accommodating environment in order to help them be successful in their life.”
I THINK THIS IS SOMETHING THAT’S EASY TO SAY, ‘WELL, IT’S NOT ME SO I DON’T HAVE TO BE INVOLVED.’
To encourage these conversations and continue with the campaign for mental health and wellness on campus, the university will kick off the “GO THERE – Break the Silence, Break the Stigma” campaign. Before the series officially begins on campus, Chancellor Zeppos will hold a discussion about mental health at Town Hall from 10 a.m. to noon on Jan. 26 open to the entire Vanderbilt community. The official kick-off for the campaign will then be on Jan. 27 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the SLC Ballroom. The event will feature information about campus resources and live demonstrations of well-being practices. The January programming will conclude on Jan. 31 with the Chancellor’s Lecture Series featuring Kay Redfield Johnson, clinical psychologist and writer.
[For more of this story, written by Caroline Bo]dnya, go to http://vanderbilthustler.com/f...amp;utm_medium=email
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